Opinion: Say no to the loop road
To the community,
Tahoe Transportation District (part of TRPA) is again pushing to construct the Loop Road. The Loop Road dates back to 1970 and attempted revisions in 1982 and 1987. Original goal was to ease congestion in the casino core.
Included in this era was a “people moving system” from Stateline core to Reagan Beach and “Light Rail” from Kingsbury Grade to South Lake Tahoe airport. Long gone is the “Casino Mecca”.
The present day plan is backed by South Tahoe Alliance of Resorts “STAR” renamed from the former “Gaming Alliance”. STAR has funded $50,000 on “South Shore Vision Plan”.
There is a clear difference from “South Shore” to South Lake Tahoe.
Key to the plan is the construction of the Loop Road.
If you are a South Lake Tahoe resident, property owner and/or business owner – please investigate the Vision Plan/Casino Core and potential Loop Road direction. Highlights: at Pioneer Trail and Highway 50 – the Bottle Shop, Naked Fish and Powderhouse turn into an eight-lane intersection. The road goes around the back of the Village Center/Raley’s to a roundabout at Highway 50 and Park Way. The Loop Road/”California Bypass” deposits visitors to the rebuilt Horizon, new Edgewood Lodge, and remodeled Lakeside Inn Casino property.
The front part of the new Horizon is built with extensive retail and restaurant opportunities – the new “Village Center”.
This plan does not benefit the businesses or the tax revenue of South Lake Tahoe. The South Lake Tahoe Chamber of Commerce opposes the Loop Road plan.
Highway 50 runs six miles from the Y to Stateline and only 1.1 miles through the project area. The majority of South Shore’s existing population lives in South Lake Tahoe – 21,000; Stateline, Nevada, has a population of 2,300. Highway 50 is the “bloodline” economic main street for the South Lake Tahoe community.
The $65 million projected Loop Road cost needs to be redirected to enhance Highway 50 from Stateline to the Y, not just the Casino Core.
Important meeting are coming up:
May 11 – 9:30am Tahoe Transportation District monthly meeting at Embassy Suites.
May 29 – South Lake Tahoe City Council workshop 6-8pm at Lake Tahoe Airport.
Mike McKeen, South Lake Tahoe businessman
if any thing the road should go on the Lake side
down Park ave. and take out the Tweeker Herion addict motels
that would improve the town
The change is almost entirely in NV so of course it will benefit Stateline. Maybe CA/SLT should get off their butts and change our end of town for the better.
I agree about cleaning up the hotels in Lakeside Park but running a highway through that neighborhood is not the answer. Rerouting traffic behind the casinos and further from the lake is the right idea. Turning the existing hwy 50 from Park Ave. through the casino corridor into a pedestrian friendly local traffic area would enhance all the businesses on the Ca side as well. The disruption of the Hwy 50/Pioneer Trail and the housing behind Raleys is a big issue.
Only real answer is to go underground, it will cost more than building above, but pulling imminent domain on many residential and commercial properties, plus reconfiguring roadway, where there wasn’t any before will also cost a lot ;)
OMG 1970>>>>2012
The Loop Road project is in the middle of environmental and economic impact analysis. Funding for construction has not been obtained and will be facing an uphill battle at best. The pro’s and con’s are still being evaluated. Preliminary studies have shown that it will help the environment, and ease traffic flow, now and in the future. The South Shore Impact Economic Analysis will shed more light on claims that this will take away revenue from the city and business owners in the Crescent V shopping center and where Mike’s property is located. The most vocal objections are coming from the people whose apartments and business’s are slated to be acquired. If I owned those properties making a good cash flow and was told that I would have to sell them at today’s market rate value, I would be screaming and not listening to anything TTD said as well. The fear of not being treated fairly and undervalued is not imagined when dealing with money. If we are going to be talking about the greater good of the community, our citizens should not be treated unfairly. Federal Law determines how evaluation of properties are determined to prevent speculators from making unfair profits and to protect taxpayers. That being said, in the case of the convention center, people whose properties were bought in 2008 were paid a much higher price than the value of those properties are worth today. They were made whole but a big difference is they are happy today. But the properties that are targeted to be acquired today for the Loop Rd Project, their property values are just above the bottom of the market and they can only hope that values rise. They are not happy and they are being very vocal about it. In a perfect world, the owner’s of the properties will receive compensation that they are happy with. South Lake Tahoe will receive a transit route that is environmentally friendly and economically prosperous to the area. Some people say look at Carson City, nobody stops there! Well, Carson City is not a vacation destination. I have seen this concept prosper and create an environment where people are more attracted to shop and spend their dollars. I don’t believe that the Crescent V shopping center will lose business, I think it will gain more tourist. I think that this will promote business on the California side, environmentally protect the lake, and ease traffic. More studies are to be analyzed and that will help determine if that is true. But if you haven’t heard the screaming yet, you will. And those owners need to be treated fairly in the process. They will receive compensation, but will it be enough to make them whole? Maybe, and that should not be compromised. Will it make them happy? No.
They need to study traffic flows to make sure dropping down from 3 roads to 2, could still handle the future demands of that area.
I still think a tunnel that starts around Lake Parkway (with off-ramps towards Edgewood & Montbleu), and comes out around Park Avenue with exits both directions on Park Avenue.
Pine Blvd & Lake Pkwy would still see heavier use than they do today, but no where near what it would be like, if they were the only roads!
Unbiased civil engineering needs to study the traffic patterns, and present all the possible solutions, and all options need to be weighed: least disturbance, cost, best integration, most aesthetically appeasing, best for future growth.
Whitt33, that is a pretty good summation of the whole thing. You can add that there is a long history of people getting below market values for their property and the courts are of no help. I would fight this as well even though personally I think its a good idea.
All of you who have lived here for years, know for a fact, that highway 50 is a traffic jam standing still in the busy summer months from Ski Run to the clubs,and backed up even further on the holidays,it’s a slow moving parking lot, but the main core traffic,tourist,are going to the casinos,trucks are passing through on the interstate highway.
Same goes if your headed out town to the Y area,I really don’t think this loop road will have any effect of moving traffic any faster,specially when they burm the highway after snow storms.
I’m sure that the law they use will be the blight reason,to remove business that sit too close to the highway,tear down people properties behind Raleys where all the old Filipinos housing use to be before they subcontracted out their jobs to the Latinos.Harvey’s brass shiners use to live there before things changed down there.
I don’t think all the protest,both at hearing or writing comments, will have much effect on what them deem necessary to get another Corporation project built,might take more money,time, but I do think this will happen in time and like all the rest it be people ,contractors getting the bids and they hire few locals with their old PR GAME THAT WE ALL WILL BENFIT.
BEEN THAT WAY FOR OVER 50 YEARS IN CASE YOU HAVEN’T NOTICED.
Think about the traffic nightmare this will cause during construction.
It will take a decade for them to finish. In the mean time 50, Pioneer Trail and the local short cuts will be closed.
Remember when they installed a couple hundred yards of sidewalk across from Lake Side Inn and on Kingsbury grade? They backed up traffic to Glenbrook, the top of Kingsbury and past Cresant “V” for THREE YEARS!!!!
They need to establish a traffic plan to serve the locals and tourist this time.
Look what they did to the poor people who needed to use Kingsbury grade the last three years.
They shut down 50 and Pioneer last summer and would do it again in a heart beat.
Let the casinos relocate their structures back toward the mountain, remove the Hwy 50 traffic signals thru the present casino core, increase the speed limit from 25 to 45 mph to be consistent with Hwy 50 thru town.
Problem solved at minimum taxpayer expense. Let those who benefit pay for this project.
Careaboutthecommunity: the tunnel sounds great but if I remember when the tunnel between Harrahs and Harveys was built, that short walkway cost $3M. Can you imagine what a 4 lane highway underground would run?
I think they just spent 16+ million on curbs up Kingsbury Grade. I would think this project would warrant 20-25 million, at least! I’m not saying it’s worth that, or couldn’t be done cheaper, that’s just what they will go with ;)
Closing the casino corridor of to vehicle traffic would be an utter nightmare. Doesn’t anyone remember a few years back when it was closed off during a busy summer weekend for that festival they had at stateline? Or for New Years every year? Visitors to our town already get a bad taste in their mouth during busy weekends because of the traffic congestion, and to close off the main road of the three that can get you from the Crescent V to Edgewood would be nothing more than sheer lunacy!
I THOUGHT THE THING WAS PRETTY AMUSING PICTURE, SINCE THEY HAD PEOPLE BACKED UP ALL THROUGH THE HOODS, SAW COUPLE WOMAN GET OUT PUNCH IT OUT OVER A FINGER AND ONE WASN’T POLITE ENOUGH FOR HER TO CUT LINE, TURN AROUND,HAD HARLEYS OVER HEATING, PLENTY HIGH STRESS.
IT WAS SUPPOSE TO MAKE MONEY,HALF THE EMPOLOYEES COULDN’T EVEN GET TO WORK.
KINDA BRINGS A SMILE TO MY FACE TO WHO THINKS THIS STUFF UP.’LEAVE’ THE LOOP ROADS THE WAY THEY ARE,AND I’ll BE WAITING FOR MORE THIS TRAFFIC, TRANS SCIENCE DATA TO ROLL IN AFTER SUMMER ON HOW MANY USE THE WATER FERRY TO FERRY LAND.
GAS IS EXPENSIVE, BUT NOT THAT EXPENSIVE.
Cracks me up to how much money they throw away on trying to prove a point.
Here’s a good example of cal trans traffic engineers mentality ,Had this bright guy who lived right next door that get up every morning, drive all the way to Sac to work and back every day in a vw Bug,summer, winter,snow ,ice,watched the guy age before our eyes.That’s pretty crazy stuff if you ask anyone with half a lick sense,so from there to now, couple roads ending up in the American river from nature ways, I say they all need to return to the books of higher learning start digging that tunnel from here to hang town to bottom of Carson city, that way they can miss the town completely.
With any luck they might appear in Reno IN THE YEAR 2040 ??
This concept of under grounding the highway is insane. Can we please move on from that people… The loop road seems like a great idea, now funding it and construction impacts well now we have problems. Doing nothing has always been the standard here and look where that has got us… This town needs some rejuvenation and an overhaul. Or at least finish what we started… More the same is not what we need.. I like the ideas that are presented…
Are there any renderings we can see to better envision this project?
Loop road!!!! We need it for many reasons.
I like the idea of rerouting thru traffic, not all traffic. I don’t like the idea of putting the costs on the backs of California business and residents. I will support a reroute if only everyone wins.